Supporting users tasks with personal information management and web forms augmentation

Currently, many tasks performed on the Web prompt users to provide personal information through forms. Despite the fact that most users are familiarized with this kind of interaction technique, the use of Web forms is not always straightforward. Indeed, some users might need assistance to understand labels and complex data format required to fill in form fields that, quite often, vary from a Web site to another even when requesting similar data. Filling in forms can be tedious and repetitive as many Web sites request similar information. In this work we analyze user's interactions with Web forms and propose an approach for enhancing Web forms using client-side adaptation techniques in order to assist users to fill in Web forms. As the use of Web forms is closely related to the management of personal information our approach includes the support for data exchange between user's personal information management systems (PIMs) and third-party Web forms. The approach is illustrated by a set of client-side adaptation tools and a pervasive Personal Information Management Systems called PIMI.Publicado en Lecture Notes in Computer Science book series (vol. 7387).Laboratorio de Investigación y Formación en Informática Avanzad

An end-user pipeline for scrapping and visualizing semi-structured data over the Web

The Web is a vast source of semi-structured data sets that are made readily available to support the construction of new knowledge. Information visualization techniques have been demonstrated a suitable alternative for allowing users to analyze and understand a large amount of data. However, the steps required for visualizing semi-structured data obtained from the Web is not straightforward, and it requires proper treatment before information visualization techniques could be applied. In this work, we present a visualization pipeline for describing the fundamental operations required for visualizing semi-structured data over the Web. For that, we employ Web Scrapping and Web Augmentation techniques for supporting interactive visualizations and solving tasks without changing the context of use of the data. Our approach is duly supported by a framework including scrapping, augmenting and visualization tools and it has been applied to different kinds of websites to demonstrate its validity and feasibility. Our ultimate goal is to expand the limits of our technology for improving the user interaction with websites and creating new experiences for better understanding large data sets

End-User Development of Voice User Interfaces based on Web content

Voice Assistants, and particularly the latest gadgets called smart speakers, allow end users to interact with applications by means of voice commands. As usual, end users are able to install applications (also called skills) that are available in repositories and fulfill multiple purposes. In this work we present an end-user environment to define skills for voice assistants based on the extraction of Web content and their organization into different voice navigation patterns. We describe the approach, the end-user development environment, and finally we present some case studies based on Alexa and Amazon Echo

Web-Augmentation, Design Thinking, and Collaboration Engineering to Foster Innovation in DSS for Agriculture: A Case Study

International audienceDecision making in agriculture increasingly relies on software, for example to gather important information or to weight alternatives. Information systems innovation in agriculture is a challenging and very active area. Existing software products, frequently implemented as web applications, are found to lack functionality, for example to support collaboration. Aigmenting the web is a widely adopted technique for enhancing existing applications with new features which are not available out of the shelf. Design thinking has proven to be an effective tool to support innovation on many domains. Collaboration Engineering is an effective means to reuse design experience of collaboration strategies. This work presents an approach to involve end-users in enhancing existing web software to produce incremental innovations. The approach relies on Design Thinking, Web Augmenttion and Collaboration Engineering. The approcah was successfully tried in a case study letting end-users add collaboration support to a system that did not provide it

Seminar series on crime and violence prevention in Kenya

Nairobi- August 12th 2011: USIUhas partnered with the Open Society Initiative of East Africa andthe Kenya Institutie of Administration conduct a seminar series in crime and violence prevention in Kenya. The program will be launched at the Kenya Institute of Administration on Friday, August 12that 10:00am, in a ceremony to be presided over by the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Internal Security and Provincial Administration, Mr. Francis Kimemia. The seminar course will utilize the opportunity provided by the promulgation of the new constitution to sensitize policy makers and policy implementers in Kenya to the effective use that can be made of community actors and local assemblies to prevent crime, thereby redressing the lack of depth and sophistication of crime prevention discourse in Kenya. The seminars will involve key government officials as well as representatives of non-state actors including the private sector, religious organizations, community groups, non-governmental organizations, academia and the media, who have worked or interacted with issues of security or worked in an area relevant to crime prevention

Web Augmentation as a Promising Technology for End User Development

International audienceThis chapter presents Web Augmentation (WA) technologies as tools and techniques for end-user development. WA technologies differ from other web development technologies as they target at improving existing Web pages and not at creating new Web sites. These improvements can deeply alter the way users use and interact with Web sites. This chapter revisits the concept of WA and provides an overview of the main features that characterize WA technologies. This characterization is used to position and compare the various contributions that have been made in WA. To make things more concrete we provide an illustration of WA technology through a case study using a dedicated tool called WebMakeup. Despite all their advantages, WA technologies present some limitations that might result in challenges on the user side. These aspects are also presented and discussed , highlighting directions for future work in that domain